In a comfortable place between fun and work.

My goal over the next five days is to revise Led to the Slaughter to a reading copy.  That is, a version that I would be willing to stand behind, put online, let people read.  However, I still want to give it to my editor and to readers to see where it can be improved.

There are 26 chapters -- about half as many as usual because each chapter was twice as long as usual.  (One day of writing per chapter.)

So if I do roughly 5 chapters per day in revisions, I should be done by the end of the week.

Then send it to my editor and readers and wait about a month, give or take.  Make a hard copy where I can make notations on at night.

Meanwhile, start writing the sequel to Death of an Immortal.

When "Led to... " comes back after a month, decide how much rewriting needs to be done, or just accept the editorial changes, or...well, in a month I'll have a better perspective.

I think the story has a chance of being pretty good, if I don't screw it up.

I'm pretty happy with the level of writing I'm producing right now.  I've worked my way around the plot traps that snagged me in my first effort of coming back to writing.  The break-through was writing The Reluctant Wizard so fast and doing it from a personal perspective.  Then Freedy Filkins, doing it from a purely fun perspective.

Those books freed me up to just start writing.  When Death of an Immortal came along, I just went ahead and wrote it despite my doubts about the timeliness of a vampire book.

I've been struggling since the beginning of my career between effort and fun -- and I think I've found a nice comfortable spot between the two.  That is, I'm having fun writing, but also making myself be patient and reworking the books despite my intellectual laziness.  Creating a process that accomplishes improvements without ruining it for me.

It seems to be getting easier, because I'm trusting the process I've arrived at, and because the more I do it, the less I second-guess what I'm doing.

While I'd love to be published the traditional route, I'm afraid it will stop this free and easy flow of words.

I'm not so much worried about not getting an agent, but of getting an agent who just stops all progress in my tracks.  I'm not so much worried about getting published, as getting hung up on the eternal delays and waiting that going the traditional route entails.

Then again, just putting it online doesn't mean anyone will read it.

Oh, well.  A long as I'm still focused on the writing and taking one step at a time nothing has been wasted.    I have a couple of completed books I'm just sort of sitting on, hoping for an opportunity somewhere.

The crunch will come when I'm done with Led to the Slaughter. 

I don't think I'll want to sit on it.  But I'll need to format it and get a cover and all that, and that will take some time.  So we'll just wait and see.